Saturday November 28 – tip-off 6.15pm, EIS Sheffield Watch live stats

 

Sheffield Arrows and Derby Trailblazers meet at the EIS for the first of a weekend double-header on Saturday.

 

The teams face each other in Derby in the National Cup quarter-final on Sunday, but Saturday's game at the EIS sees Division One points at stake.

 

After losing against Manchester Magic and London Leopards last weekend, Trailblazers have dropped to joint fifth in the Division One table with a 3-2 record, while Arrows are tenth with one win from three games.

 

Sheffield coach Pete Kelly is expecting two tough games over the weekend:

 

"We face a daunting weekend double against Trailblazers, however we are really improving and coming together as a group. We have now seen players get to grip with the situation and start to understand something of their role.

 

"We have different stand-out players each week with four guys in double figures against Bristol. What we are developing as we go is how to manage parts of the game as they happen. This can only develop through experience in the league and our team has little of that.

 

"Sam Spare has been a consistent rock in the centre of our work and he too has begun to broaden his attacking intent for the good of the team.

 

"We will accept the challenge of a very good Derby side and I am confident that we will emerge from this cauldron of competition a better group of players.

 

"I do think we can set Derby some problems to solve at both ends of the floor."

 

Trailblazers coach Clarence Wiggins is taking it one game at a time:

 

"We've played them twice already, so we know a lot about them and like this weekend, we're going to be focusing on Saturday's league game before we even think about Sunday's cup tie. We're going to prepare the team as well as we can do and we're going to just go out and try to perform better than we did last weekend.

 

"After the two defeats against Manchester and Leopards, we just need to get back to winning ways because we didn't do ourselves justice last weekend. We have to get back on track and make sure we finish the weekend with two wins.

 

"There are lots of positives to take from the Manchester game. The effort our guys gave us was tremendous. I was extremely pleased. We had guys diving on the floor for loose balls and if we'd just have had one or two more calls in our favour rather than against us, we could easily have won the basketball game."

 

As Wiggins says, the teams have already met twice in the National Trophy this season, with Trailblazers coming out on top on each occasion.

 

Derby won 94-74 away from home in early October, with Mark Woodhouse leading the way with 27 points and 13 rebounds. Simon Allaway was also on top form, converting 4 of his 6 three-point attempts on his way to 17 points and Joel Madourie had an impressive debut, notching up 10 points and 9 rebounds.

 

Sheffield were led by Luke Ellis with 15 points and Sam Spare who gathered 10 rebounds, despite Derby dominating the glass, as they out-rebounded the Arrows 53–38.

 

In the return, Derby completed a perfect record in the group stage of the competition with a 83-51 home victory. Simon Allaway led all scorers with 18 points, while Dave Attewell was once again Derby's top rebounder, gathering five offensive and eight defensive boards.

 

Sebastian Chitagu and Ant Oxley led the Arrows' scoring with ten apiece, with Ben Murray adding nine.

 

 

Reading Rockets will aim to build on last week's opening league win of the season, against Coventry Crusaders, when they travel to Taunton Tigers on Saturday.

 

Rockets team analyst Ben Fisher has been impressed with how Taunton have started, especially their new American forward, Chris Page:

 

"Taunton has had it tough over the last two seasons so it is great to see them be really competitive this year," he said.

 

"They have a good coach in Tom Kambouris, an excellent import player in 6'6" forward Chris Page and a mixture of English talent that will cause a lot of teams problems this season. We are expecting another tough game at their place so we will have to take confidence from last weekend's win over Coventry."

 

That win against Coventry lifted Rockets up to ninth place in the table with a 1-2 record and at least one game in hand over everyone above them. Taunton are currently enjoying their best start to a season in the top flight and are sixth with two wins from four games.

 

Rockets completed a clean sweep of victories against Tigers last season en route to a perfect year.

 

When the teams met at Rivermead in mid-December, the Rockets strolled to a 92-56 victory. Reading started strongly, rushing into a 27-13 first period lead, and although Tigers fought back to trim two off the lead at half-time they still trailed 41-29 at the midway break.

 

A dominant third quarter saw Rockets effectively sew up the game with a 29-9 run to lead 70-38. Coach Titmuss took the opportunity to give a number of his usual starting five plenty of rest whilst giving the Rockets' academy juniors some court time and experience at this level. They didn't disappoint him or the Rockets' supporters as they won the fourth quarter 22-18 to wrap up Reading's 14th straight win of the season.

 

Simon Kearney led all scorers with 18 points, with Adam Thoseby and Ryan Lohfink adding 15 apiece. Adam Rickwood was the only Tiger in double figures with 15, with Ian Spearman and Lee Riviello each scoring seven for a Taunton team who are still looking for their first win.

 

The Rockets also recorded a pair of National Trophy victory against Taunton, winning 102-61 in the West Country in January before completing the double a week later with an 86-41 victory. The fourth, and final, meeting of the season between the teams saw Rockets wrap up the Division One title with a 111-71 win in Taunton. That victory in the West Country saw Rockets record their 31st consecutive victory in all competitions that season as they added the league title to the National Cup and National Trophy.

 

 

Nov 28 2009	Sheffield Arrows	v	Derby Trailblazers	EIS - Sheffield Watch live stats
6.15pm
Nov 28 2009	Manchester Magic	v	Coventry Crusaders	Amaechi Basketball Centre Watch live stats
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Nov 28 2009	Taunton Tigers	v	Reading Rockets	Wellsprings LC
6.30pm
Nov 28 2009	Leeds Carnegie	v	Leicester Warriors	Leeds Metropolitan Carnegie University Watch live stats
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Nov 28 2009	London Mets	v	Bristol Academy Flyers	London Metropolitan University
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